This excerpt from an old Navy manual came to mind as I sought “permission to come aboard” across the gangplank of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw, docked just above the locks at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, on a brisk mid-March day.more

In early 1901, Augustus B. Wolvin told executives at the newly formed U.S. Steel Corporation that if they wanted him to manage the “Steel Trust” fleet, he’d only do it from his adopted hometown – Duluth.more

In the early part of the 20th century, the America was an elegant, 182-foot package freighter that served fishing families, businessmen and tourists. All of that came to an abrupt halt June 7, 1928, when the steamer sank off Isle Royale.more

On June 18, 1855, the steamer Illinois locked through upbound and ushered in a new era in Great Lakes shipping. But the Soo Locks didn’t come easy. The planning and building of the locks were as fraught with obstacles as the waterway they traversed.more

The Henry B. Smith was found on May 24, 2013, by a small team of shipwreck hunters. She had been missing almost a century, but through decades of effort, the team put it all together and solved one of the biggest mysteries of the Inland Seas.more

Fe, our family's little Iron Man, always wears a life jacket by the water. But on this day, when we stopped briefly at the boat before a hike, he was not. And on this day, our 2-year-old tumbled from the dock and fell in.more

Captain Dudley J. Paquette, who served for 30 years as an officer in the Inland Steel Company fleet and was on Lake Superior as captain of the Wilfred Sykes on the day the Edmund Fitzgerald went down, has died. He was 88.more